Donna Jones

Click to hear how Donna Jones' life has changed.

For Donna Jones, meeting her literacy tutor for the first time felt like going out on a blind date. It was shortly after New Year's Day in 1995, and Donna had recently signed up for free tutoring with Project Read of Northern San Mateo County, CA. She and her tutor-to-be spoke on the phone to set up their first meeting at the public library. As he described himself and she described herself, she recalls, "I felt like I was going on a blind date because I didn't know who he was and he didn't know who I was. It felt so terrifying. But he turned out to be a very nice and dedicated gentleman."

George Santori met with Donna on a regular basis, teaching her how to write at first, then how to read.

"We started out very simple," she recalls. "I loved to travel so he'd have me bring in pictures of where I'd been. He asked me to describe the pictures, using as many adjectives as I could. So we would learn parts of speech that way, then build sentences and paragraphs and stories."

Donna had wanted to learn how to read and write for many years, but kept putting it off. She learned how to muddle through life while reading and writing like a fourth-grader, but she could tell her lack of skill was holding her back from achieving her dream of starting her own transcription business. On many occasions she'd had difficulty writing letters for supervisors. Her friends would tell her they had trouble following her letters to them. Even her husband -- who praised her ideas -- said she wrote like a child. "I knew something was wrong," she recalls. "Eventually I would need another job and I just couldn't pull it off."

One day, Donna saw an ad on television. But she didn't have a pen and pencil handy, so she had to wait another couple of months, hoping the ad might reappear. Finally the toll-free number was broadcast again. This time she was ready. She called the number and was referred for tutoring at a ProLiteracy affiliate close to her home.

Quite a bit has changed in Donna's life since she met her tutor. She has become a regular contributor to a literacy newsletter and won a state writing contest. She went from being a person who hated parties to a person who loves to socialize. She has even had the courage to stand up and speak in public, which may come in handy now that she is a member of the Student Advisory Council for Proliteracy Worldwide.

"If you told me 10 years ago I'd be doing that, I would have told you you were out of your mind," she says. "Not only have I increased my reading and writing skills," she continues, "I've increased my self-esteem and my self-confidence. I have more friends, I'm more comfortable socializing and willing to travel by myself."

But Donna's not entirely comfortable - yet. She feels the itch to become a writer. "I would really, really love to do that," she says. "I'd like to get one book published -- just one -- so I could say I am a published author."